I’d been waiting for this show for ages. It was quite fun.
No love for Disk Utility
While playing around with Boot Camp, and trying to install Ubuntu on the partition it created, I ran into a few issues with the Disk Utility in OS X. It’s not at all prepared to deal with corrupt information in the MBR or GPT entries. It complained stating that “the partition wasn’t found” or “an unspecified error occurred”.
Using gparted, I fixed the GPT. Disk Utility started behaving again. I eschewed the Boot Camp Assistant, shrunk the OS X partition with Disk Utility, and booted from the Ubuntu disc. I installed Ubuntu using the option to use the largest contiguous free space. I can now press “option” while the system is booting to select either the OS X install or the “Windows” install. The firmware thinks that anything that’s not OS X must be windows. Whatever.
rEFIt is definitely not necessary. For me, it didn’t install correctly.
Bottom line, I can now use Ubuntuon my Macbook Pro! This is a great boon to me because trying to shoe-horn some of the development tools into OS X isn’t very pretty. If only they’d espouse some useful and robust package management tool like Apt or RPM.
Shoes
There was one morning I was feeling sad and I walked into the breakfast nook and my mom said,
“Brak don’t you come in here with that face!” and I said,
“Well mom, what do you want me to do – get a new face?”and she said,
“No, I want you to eat your waffles!” And my mom was usually pretty good to me. So, um, one day she bought me a brand new shoe and she said,
“Brak if you’re a good boy I’ll buy you the other shoe.” So, um, you know maybe someday I’ll have a pair of new shoes. So, ‘least I’ve got that going for me.
– Brak
like a kid again
We went to OMSI and took in the kid-free awesomeness that is OMSI after dark. It’s an evening event where they serve wine, beer, give samples of local food – all while letting the grown-ups at the exhibits. It’s quite fun not to have to yield to the kids. It wasn’t as crowded as I’ve seen it as well.
The featured exhibit was a CSI role-playing crime-solving walk-through. It starts off with a quick intro video and assignment into one of three groups. Then it’s straight off into a crime scene with your checklist. It’s really well done, fun, and engaging. There’s a quiz at the end, and a video station that let participants record their thoughts. There was a particular stage in the event where we were “watching the autopsy”. The doctor walked us through the ordeal, while the body (a reflective white mannequin) lay under a projector, organs coalescing in a vaguely gory fashion.
There was also an infrared camera and a black screen that you could use to draw with infrared radiation. (like body heat) We all giggled as we left butt-prints on the wall.
Overall, quite awesome.
Another laptop.
Finally finished saving up for a new laptop. Bought the 17″ MacBook Pro, which is a big shift from my last laptop, a Lenovo x61. Booted up the x61 yesterday, and was surprised how small it seemed. Never quite realized how much I’d gotten used to it. Felt a bit nostalgic. I’m probably going to put windows on it and let my sister use it while she’s studying to become an EMT. I hate medical textbooks.
Mushrooms
I was introduced to an album by Les Claypool – Of Fungi and Foe. Got me looking at the wikipedia article for Amanitas. Found the list of mushroom species in that genus. Found this in that list:
Does it seem strange that in the midst of all those skulls (deadly/hazardous mushrooms) there’s a smiley licking his chops signifying a particularly delicious mushroom?
Swamp Keys
Started running again a few days ago. Went out yesterday on one of the nicest days we’ve had in a long while. After I got home, I changed into my running clothes, and tied my keys onto my shoe. Thoughtfully, I left my car key on the hook by the door. Went out and started running and walking. Made it up walker, and decided to run through the woods behind OGI. Hadn’t heard about the monkeys with herpes that had escaped the monkey farm out here. Proceeded to run across a nice grassy lawn, and into the woods. There was a path for a little while, but that soon stopped, and I was looking out over a creek and tall grass laced with mud. Fallen trees and firm spots of ground convinced me that there was a path through to the other side.
In short, a short cut.
It didn’t work. After a while of climbing around in the muck, and stuck with blackberry thorns, I noticed that my shoe wasn’t jingling any more. I cursed a bit and backtracked all the way home.
Curse you, swamp.
In spite of that, I’ll still go out again Wednesday. Maybe I’ll run through the swamp again just to teach it a lesson.
Ott
We had the pleasure of seeing Ott perform at Jai Ganesh Just shortly after the new year. Ott came on at 2:00am, and we danced our hearts out. It was brilliant. Since it was such a small venue, we got to meet and chat with Ott for a bit. He seems to be a pretty normal guy who really enjoys the music he makes.
See the photos for more details; the video didn’t turn out. Bummer.
